"Virtuous circle"

[Paul McFedries]

"Virtuous circle" caught quite a while ago. Lexis-Nexis reports over 600
citations in 1999 alone. The earliest Lexis-Nexis citation is from The
New York Times' Information Bank Abstracts, which offers the following
abstract from August 27, 1972:

     E L Dale Jr article revg present wage-price controls program
     and discussing outlook for Phase 3; recalls 'virtuous circle'
     of wage-price stability in early '60s and subsequent 'vicious
     circle' of wage-price spiral which led to Nixon Adm's imposition
     of controls;

There are 23 citations from the 1970s, 16 of which are from The
Economist, so I'll venture that they did the most to popularize the
phrase. "Virtuous circle" was a Word Spy back on September 15, 1997.

Paul
Books: http://www.mcfedries.com/books/
Word Spy: http://www.logophilia.com/WordSpy/

>    Last Thursday, Fed Chief Alan Greenspan said that the
> United States economy is experiencing a "virtuous circle" of
> new investment, rising productivity, and rising profits.
>    Check Nexis in a another week to see if it catches.